Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 29

Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records

2018

Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records

2018
6.7
This stylish documentary about the iconic ska, reggae and rock-steady label is a timely and wide-ranging celebration of british Jamaican working-class youth culture.
Lancaster

2022

Lancaster

2022
6.8
The story of the iconic WW2 bomber told through the words of the last surviving crew members, re-mastered archive material and extraordinary aerial footage of the RAF’s last airworthy Lancaster.
Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema

1998

Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema

1998
4.9
An exploration of Chinese cinema and its relationships with gender and sexuality, which the film argues has been more frankly and provocatively explored than in any other national cinema. Utilizing both film excerpts and interviews with many leading directors and academics, the film examines topics such as male bonding in kung fu movies, depictions of same-sex bonding and physical intimacy, the emphasis on women's grievances in melodramas, and the career of Yam Kim-Fai, a Hong Kong actress who spent her life portraying men on and off the screen.
Childhood 2.0

2020

Childhood 2.0

2020
7
For the first time in history, mental illness and suicide have become one of the greatest threats to school-aged children. Many parents still view dangers as primarily physical and external, but they’re missing the real danger: kids spending more time online and less time engaging in real life, free play, and autonomy. What are the effects on the next generation's mental, physical, and spiritual health? Childhood was more or less unchanged for millennia, but this is Childhood 2.0.
Creature Designers: The Frankenstein Complex

2015

Creature Designers: The Frankenstein Complex

2015
7.3
The Frankenstein Complex takes a historical as well as a creative perspective, with a mix of fascinating scenes behind the camera, film clips, and dozens of interviews with all the big names in the industry. In addition to the many wonderful anecdotes, the film also offers a wealth of beautiful test material, while along the way showing how the art of filmmaking has changed over the years. An affectionate ode to monster makers throughout history.
What Was Ours

2016

What Was Ours

2016
Like millions of indigenous people, many Native American tribes do not control their own material history and culture. For the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes living on the isolated Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, new contact with lost artifacts risks opening old wounds but also offers the possibility for healing. What Was Ours is the story of how a young journalist and a teenage powwow princess, both of the Arapaho tribe, travelled together with a Shoshone elder in search of missing artifacts in the vast archives of Chicago’s Field Museum. There they discover a treasure trove of ancestral objects, setting them on a journey to recover what has been lost and build hope for the future.
Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives

1977

Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives

1977
4.7
More than two dozen men and women of various backgrounds, ages, and races talk to the camera about being gay or lesbian. Their stories are arranged in loose chronology: early years, fitting in (which for some meant marriage), coming out, establishing adult identities, and reflecting on how things have changed and how things should be.
Dark Days

2000

Dark Days

2000
7.2
A cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.
Born to Be Wild

2011

Born to Be Wild

2011
7
Born to Be Wild observes various orphaned jungle animals and their day-to-day behavioural interactions with the individuals who rescue them and raise them to adulthood. The film unfurls in two separate geographic spheres. Half of it takes place in the rain forests of Borneo, where celebrated primatologist Dr. Birute Galdikas assists baby orangutans; the other half takes place on the arid savannahs of Kenya, where zoologist Dame Daphne Sheldrick works with baby elephant calves.
Lennox Lewis: The Untold Story

2020

Lennox Lewis: The Untold Story

2020
7.2
Dr. Dre narrates the story of Lennox Lewis' rise from humble beginnings to become the greatest Undisputed Heavyweight Champion in the modern era.
King on Screen

2023

King on Screen

2023
6.9
1976, Brian de Palma directs Carrie, the first novel by Stephen King. Since, more than 50 directors adapted the master of horror's books, in more than 80 films and series, making him now, the most adapted author still alive in the world.
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time

2021

Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time

2021
6.8
A documentary 33 years in the making. A director and friend of Kurt Vonnegut seeks through his archives to create the first film featuring the revolutionary late writer.
Coney Island

1991

Coney Island

1991
6
Before there was Disneyland, there was Coney Island. By the turn of the century, this tiny piece of New York real estate was internationally famous. On summer Sundays, three great pleasure domes--Steeplechase, Luna Park and Dreamland--competed for the patronage of a half-million people. By day it was the world's most amazing amusement park, by night, an electric "Eden".
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy

2023

Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy

2023
5.8
This is not a documentary about the making of Midnight Cowboy. It is about a humane and groundbreaking masterpiece and the flawed but gifted people who made it. It is about a troubled era of cultural ferment, social and political change, about broken dreams and strivers, then and now. It is about an era that made a movie and a movie that made an era.
Beba

2022

Beba

2022
7
A raw, poetic self-portrait in which young, NYC-born Afro-Latina Rebeca “Beba” Huntt stares down historical, societal, and generational trauma.
Harry Benson: Shoot First

2016

Harry Benson: Shoot First

2016
6.6
What we know today about many famous musicians, politicians, and actresses is due to the famous work of photographer Harry Benson. He captured vibrant and intimate photos of the most famous band in history;The Beatles. His extensive portfolio grew to include iconic photos of Muhammad Ali, Michael Jackson, and Dr. Martin Luther King. His wide-ranging work has appeared in publications including Life, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. Benson, now 86, is still taking photos and has no intentions of stopping.
American Teacher

2011

American Teacher

2011
5.7
As the debate over the state of America's public school system rages on, one thing everyone agrees on is the need for great teachers. Yet, while research proves that teachers are the most important school factor in a child's future success, America's teachers are so woefully underpaid that almost a third must divide their time between a second job in order to make a living. Chronicling the stories of four teachers in different areas of the country, American Teacher reveals the frustrating realities of today's educators, the difficulty of attracting talented new teachers, and why so many of our best teachers feel forced to leave the profession altogether. But this wake-up call to our system's failings also looks at possibilities for reform. Can we re-value teaching in the United States and turn it into a prestigious, financially attractive and competitive profession? With almost half of American teachers leaving the field in the next five years, now is the time to find out.
2040

2019

2040

2019
6.7
A three year self-described labour of love, 2040 takes the form of a visual letter from the filmmaker to his four-year-old daughter Velvet, showing her what the year 2040 could look like “if we simply embraced the best solutions that exist today.”
Awake: The Life of Yogananda

2014

Awake: The Life of Yogananda

2014
6.8
An unconventional biography by Oscar nominee Paola di Florio and Sundance winner Lisa Leeman about Hindu mystic Paramahansa Yogananda who brought yoga and meditation to the West in 1920 and authored the spiritual classic "Autobiography of a Yogi," which became the go-to book for seekers from George Harrison to Steve Jobs.
Hannibal Hopkins & Sir Anthony

2021

Hannibal Hopkins & Sir Anthony

2021
4.5
Hopkins’ career has spanned several decades, which is why we will also use many interviews that he gave throughout his life, allowing us to put him back into the context of each period and will be helpful in understanding his role in the history of cinema, because he was far from following the trends. He never belonged to any film movement; he is a chameleon that has always preferred natural acting, ‘non-acting’ when method acting was the fashion.